After beating the main story in pokémon scarlet a few weeks ago, I decided to keep the creature catching going with monster sanctuary on switch.

This game is a cross between a typical monster taming adventure and a side-scrolling metroidvania. Combat in the game is in the form of 3v3 turn-based monster battles with your typical elemental resistances, buffs, debuffs, etc, but there is enough variance between the different monsters and some interesting combat mechanics which keep things interesting and engaging.

For my first playthrough, I started with the #4 Spectral Lion and ended up keeping my same team of early monsters throughout: #12 Monk, #20 G'rulu, #34 Ice Blob, #51 Tanuki and #61 Manticorb. That said, all the other monsters I caught for their abilities and to fill out the journal seemed pretty viable and had interesting skill combinations of their own.

I think this is one of the games where you kind of know ahead of time if you'll like it or not. If a monster catching side-scrolling metroidvania sounds fun to you, give it a whirl. The combat mechanics are a lot of fun and it won't disappoint.